Scottish artist creates vibrant installation on museum wall

Chris Bergeron

Saturday

Nov 24, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 24, 2007 at 7:52 AM

Assisted by local art students, Jim Lambie covered 100 feet of the wall with swirling geometric patterns of black tape. Then he hung at irregular intervals seven chairs each cut in half and painted in pulsating colors along the 18-foot-high wall. To add flair, Lambie attached to each chair a purse covered with shards of broken mirrors.

Hey, finish your clam chowder, and call Mom and tell her to come see these crazy chairs with purses on them sticking out of the museum wall.

If that's what visitors are saying about Jim Lambie's new installation at the Museum of Fine Arts, William Stover will be happy.

The MFA's assistant curator of contemporary art, Stover invited Lambie to fly from Scotland to build the eye-catching installation that transforms an unremarkable wall into "art in a public space."

Assisted by local art students, Lambie covered 100 feet of the wall with swirling geometric patterns of black tape. Then he hung at irregular intervals seven chairs each cut in half and painted in pulsating colors along the 18-foot-high wall. To add flair, Lambie attached to each chair a purse covered with shards of broken mirrors.

Designed specifically for the first floor Galleria wall, facing the cafe in the museum's I.M. Pei-designed West Wing, Lambie changed "a blank canvas" into an engaging, provocative piece of contemporary art, Stover said.

"Jim takes what others normally overlook and creates visually dynamic and vibrant works which reference contemporary culture but are linked to the history of art," he said.

For Stover, Lambie's installation reflects and adds upon prior work by French avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp and artists of the Arte Povera and Op Art movements. Established in the late 1960s by Italian curator and critic Germano Celant, "Arte Povera, or "Poor Art," uses cheap ordinary "found" objects, like machine parts or discarded furniture, to create radically new art.

The installation, titled "RSVP: Jim Lambie" will be on view through May 25, 2008.

Stover said it is the third work in the series "RSVPmfa" which invites artists to use the museum's collections, architecture and grounds to create works that "extend beyond the traditional gallery."

"Contemporary art isn't something you just put in a gallery," he said. "We want the artists (in the series) to consider overlooked spaces."

Stover pointed out Lambie's installation with its flamboyant colors and fascinating look merges with the atmosphere of diners in the nearby cafe and the conversations of passing visitors.

Citing the spacing of chairs across the wall, he described Lambie's piece as "very formal but possessing a sense of whimsy."

As three teenagers stopped to puzzle over the mirrored handbags hanging from a green-pink-and-orange chair, Stover said, "It's very much a scene of movement both ways."

Born in Scotland in 1964, Lambie attended the Glasgow School of Art. Stover said his work has been influenced by the Glasgow music scene, where he played in a band and also served as a disc jockey. Lambie has created several installations, incorporating "found objects" and ephemera, that earned him a nomination for the prestigious Turner Prize.

Stover said the curved vinyl patterns Lambie put on the museum wall resemble the grooved records he used as a DJ and might be a visual metaphor for "sound made visible."

While emphasizing there's no fixed interpretation for Lambie's work, Stover felt the mirror shards covering the handbags were reminiscent of reflecting lights once used in discos.

Stover said Lambie worked with local art students for several days to cover the wall in taped vinyl patterns that catch visitors' eyes.

"A social space became an art space. It changed throughout the installation," Stover said. "Installing it was a kind of performance."

THE ESSENTIALS:

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is open seven days a week. Hours are: 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Saturday through Tuesday, and 10 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. After 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday, only the West Wing is open.

General admission (which includes two visits in a 10-day period but does not include Gund Gallery exhibitions) is $17 for adults, $15 for senior citizens and students 18 and older. Students who are university members are free.

Admission is free for children 17 and younger during nonschool hours.

For general information, call 617-267-9300 or visit www.mfa.org.

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